Tuesday, August 20, 2002

Day 25-27: 17-19 Aug 02
Knoxville, Tennessee
Unpacked from the Road Trip, Packed for OTS, rested. Departed from Knoxville MEPS after getting orders for Maxwell AFB, AL on 19 Aug 02.USAF Officer Training School
My Trans-American Road Trip officially ended when I reported in for Officer Training School. And one of the first things the military does is give you a haircut.

Another explore a city day, so I slept in until 8am after watching everyone go off to work. I looked up what to do and see in Chicago, but I guess I’ll just end up walking around town with a map. The Chicago City Pass is a pretty good deal:

I got on the “L” at Irving Park at 9 am after having missed seeing the automatic ticket machines, which resulted in me getting step-by-step instructions from the rail worker in the booth.
I visited the Hancock observatory which stands 1,030 above the ground.

Hancock Tower, outside

Hancock Tower, view from inside

After the Hancock Tower, I went to the Art Institute of Chicago where I saw works by Seurat, Van Gogh, Degas, Manet, Monet, O’Keefe, and Hopper’s Café Singer.

Degas

Seurat

Rothko

Hopper

O'Keefe

Grant Wood

Warhol's Mao

Roy Lichtenstein

The Christmas ornament closet was already full

After the Art Institute, I walked down Michigan Avenue until I checked the map, and then turned west to the Sears Tower (which I hadn’t actually seen on the map previously). I couldn’t find any place that would let me charge my lunch to a credit card except for the Uno’s north of the river. I have the Chicago City Pass, and also plan on hitting the Filed Museum and the Aquarium today. It’s 2pm now, and they close at 5pm and 6pm respectively.

From Uno’s, I hopped on the red line to Roosevelt, hit the Field Museum and got stock photos of all the roadkill I’ve seen on this trip.

The Blue Angels just happened to be practicing as I walked to the Shedd Aquarium, where I watched a dolphin show.

Otter

Hover Dolphins!

Penguins!

Ridin' the rails

I checked an ATM nearby, and I still have only $18 left in the account. I hopped on the brown line to go back to Molly’s. Along the way, there was a 15-minute delay for some unknown reason. All told, six different people asked me about the bright orange Reese’s Peanut Butter cup t-shirt I’m wearing. Comments ranged from “Nice Shirt!” and “Where’d you get that?!?” to “Reese’s? Ahhaha, that’s great!”

I arrived back at Molly’s around 6:30pm. Her friend Dave showed up to crash for the night as well. Molly and I had pasta and then she went out to meet some old friends. I stayed in to watch TV. Three girls came back, but no Dave. Late that night, he was having trouble “getting the key to work,” and while I heard it, it didn’t register that someone might be at the door. One of the girls let him in.

Another lazy morning. I went with Lisa to drop her folks off at the airport, then on a windshield tour of Denver.

Denver International Airport

After Denver, we took a trip to Boulder for a beer and hot wings. Boulder is definitely more my style than Denver.

Splash park

This just makes me smile.

After that, I met up with Alyson around 10pm because she got the late shift. We had a dinner of hashbrowns and pancakes at Tom’s Diner, a retro throwback that kind of reminded me of the diner in Pulp Fiction. During dinner, I remembered that I needed to get the oil changed, but it was far too late to get the car serviced. I’m also not feeling so well, possibly a combination of the beer, food, and altitude.

In somewhat related news, I heard back from Ted, my USAF recruiter, today. Ted just got back from vacation to find my paperwork still in Boston. So he says that I should come back to Boston on the 16th, which would be a really tight drive. Or, I can leave my car in Boston for 3 months and take a plane from Boston to Alabama on the 20th.